241: Secular Meditation
Age Less / Live More
Lucas Rockwood
4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2017
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Almost every style of meditation I've learned has been presented as "secular," but very quickly there is a Hindu chant, a photo of some old guru with a beard, or some other paraphernalia that looks and feels a lot like organized religion to me. I'm very interested in all world religions, but when I'm learning to meditate, I'd rather do that on its own.
If you feel the same, you'll enjoy this week's Yoga Talk Show with author and meditator, Rick Heller.
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What You´ll Learn:
- How problems with Rick's vision problem and chronic pain spurred his initial interest in meditation
- How "mindfulness" can be defined as paying attention to what is going on in the present moment with an attitude that is welcoming and non-judgmental
- Why "loving kindness" meditation can be a great starting point for people who struggle to calm their mind
- How to differentiate meditative activities like gardening or walking from meditation practices and meditation as a skill
- Why meditation classes are often empty while yoga asana (pose-based) classes are usually full
Links & Resources:
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Freelance journalist and meditation instructor Rick Heller has reported for the Lowell Sun and other New England newspapers and has been published in Buddhadharma, UUWorld, Tikkun, Free Inquiry, Faith Street, The Humanist, and Boston magazines. He has contributed short stories to Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Rick is the facilitator of the Humanist Mindfulness Group and has led meditations sponsored by the Humanist Community at Harvard since 2009. He has also attended workshops and retreats at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and the Insight Meditation Society.
He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT, a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University, and a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
His book, Secular Meditation, is available on Amazon.
Learn more at: www.rickheller.com
Nutritional Tip:
- Mushroom Prep
Got Questions?
- Send me a voicemail here: http://www.YogaBody.com/AskLucas
- Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So growing up as a kid I was never any good at sports. I have no coordination. I was never a fast runner. |
| 0:06.1 | Couldn't play any ball sports team sports. I was kind of a bookworm academic probably no surprise to anyone who's a regular listener to the show. |
| 0:14.0 | As I've gotten older as an adult I've really found a great deal of satisfaction, self-confidence |
| 0:18.9 | in learning how to use my body and getting in shape, learning how to do basic things, not competitive things, |
| 0:24.1 | I just don't have the wiring for those kinds of activities, but learning how to stand on my head, |
| 0:29.1 | do back bends, stand on my hands, been really, really important for me me and really made me feel great about |
| 0:34.0 | myself just to learn that not only can my brain do stuff but my body can do stuff as |
| 0:39.0 | well on that note I've been trying to learn new stuff every year. One of the things I've been playing around |
| 0:43.2 | with this year is remedial gymnastics. I've been working on hand balancing. I've been working on |
| 0:48.1 | some basic tumbling and I've been playing around with gymnastic rings. Now I say remedial |
| 0:52.8 | remedial, don't be fooled. I am absolutely remedial at all of this, but I'm |
| 0:59.1 | finding a lot of benefits and I'm having a lot of fun and I've actually built some gymnastic |
| 1:03.9 | rings. They are professional specs so but I am not a professional but you will find |
| 1:08.1 | the rings are beautiful and they're also up to spec. They're made of Birchwood |
| 1:12.1 | they're gorgeous and if you have a |
| 1:13.6 | yoga trapeze rig you can just swap out your trapeze for these gymnastic rings. |
| 1:17.7 | That's what we do in my studios. That's what I do out on my terrace and |
| 1:20.6 | I've been having a lot of fun and building a lot of core and upper body strength |
| 1:24.3 | again integrating that pull and that grip strength motions that you just can't get in a map-based class. |
| 1:30.0 | To check out these new rings to see some photos of me attempting to balance myself you can go check |
| 1:35.4 | out shop dot yoga body.com we have a limited supply of these because I'm not |
| 1:40.2 | really sure how many yoga students are interested. |
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